(TibetanReview.net, Aug12, 2017) – As the nearly two-month-long Sino-India standoff over the Doklam border area continues, senior Army officers of the two sides were holding a meeting at Nathu La in Sikkim, said Indian online media reports Aug 11. An earlier meeting at a subordinate level of officers could not achieve any breakthrough, reported indiatoday.in.

While no breakthrough is expected in the seven-week-long standoff at Doklam, the meeting hints at the fact that communication lines between the two armies are open at a local level, reported news18.com Aug 11.

It was earlier reported by Reuters Aug 8 that low level diplomatic efforts at resolving the issue had hit a wall with China refusing to budge from its insistence that India should withdraw its troops from Doklam.

Both the sides were reported to have undertaken troop and armament build-up along the 3,488-km border between the two countries, although not yet towards the Line of Actual Control.

India continues to be in a ‘no war, no peace’ mode at the Line of Actual Control — which means the caution levels are high, but not high enough to raise hackles on the other side, said the news18.com report.

Meanwhile, Bhutan’s foreign minister has expressed hope that the situation in Doklam, which it says is its territory against China’s claim, will be resolved peacefully and amicably.

The minister, Damcho Dorji, was reported to have made the remark after his Aug 11 meeting with India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on the sidelines of the 15th foreign minister-level meeting of BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Ministerial meeting in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.

Nepal’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs arranged the meeting between Swaraj and Dorji on request by the Indian side, said Nepal’s myrepublica.com Aug 11.